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...Germany has depended heavily on low-skilled immigrants for their economic muscle, but the country has been slow to accept them as full members of society. At a time when Germany is once again embroiled in a heated immigration debate, immigrants, especially Turkish and other Muslims, are often accused of not doing enough to integrate: not learning German sufficiently and living in parallel societies, isolated from mainstream German culture....

Thilo Sarrazin, a top member of Germany's central bank, just published a book accusing immigrants of "dumbing down" German society. He also claimed that Germany's Turkish and Arab immigrants, most of them Muslims, were reluctant to integrate.

Turks tend to be less integrated on average than other immigrant groups, according to studies by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, an independent research organization. Turks are also more likely to be poorly educated, underpaid and unemployed, the study said. Housing and job discrimination also has been widely reported against Turks.

Demiragli said it's easy to blame immigrants but the German system also shares blame because historically even the children of immigrants born in Germany have been treated like foreigners.

For example, even though she was born in Germany, Demiragli said she was classified as the "child of a guest worker" on her passport until she turned 16. And then she was classified as merely a guest worker. It took years for her to become a German citizen